Setting a course for integrating IT operations to bring together Dell and EMC in the largest merger in high-tech history is a bit like climbing a mountain. You need to decide where to start and map out the path you will take to get to the top.

Defining Dell IT’s (the name of the new combined organization) journey for integration was the first step as we began the process of molding both companies’ IT resources into one IT organization to serve what was becoming a 140,000-person global company. And while we still have a ways to go in our integration effort, here are some of the methods we used and lessons we learned so far that might make your IT integration journey a little less daunting.

In my last blog, I talked about how EMC succeeded beyond expectations in launching our new ERP system – codenamed PROPEL – in a big-bang cutover that went live without a hitch on July 4, 2012. But the real test of the PROPEL project still loomed: closing out our first ever quarter using the new SAP ERP system.

I’m glad to report that PROPEL passed that critical test— thanks to planning, persistence and plenty of hard work by our project team, the business and everyone involved across EMC. While we are still honing processes, and evaluating training and resources to get the most out of our new system, we learned some valuable lessons by going through our first quarter-end (Q3 2012) processing using PROPEL. Here are some highlights that will hopefully help you in your transformation efforts.(more…)

Posted in IT Transformation, ITaaS |
Comments Off on EMC’s New SAP ERP System Passes the Test: Users muscle through record end of quarter (Q3 2012)October 3, 2012

When it comes to launching the biggest project in EMC IT’s history in a simultaneous “big-bang” cutover with global business ramifications, you can never practice enough.

At least that was our experience at EMC in early July 2012 as we kicked off the first phase of PROPEL—the new, SAP-based Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system that will take EMC into the future.

PROPEL was tasked with providing a highly configurable and “vanilla” out-of-the-box SAP solution that can more efficiently handle the company’s growth with minimum customization. It replaces a decade-old, highly customized legacy ERP system.

In addition to the technology change, the project involved a tremendous amount of business process change. More than 500 EMC employees from Finance, Manufacturing, Sales and IT, as well as our partners, worked for 27 months to bring about this groundbreaking transition. And while there were many challenges along the way, launching the new ERP platform all at once in big-bang fashion around the globe was the most significant one.(more…)

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